LOUIS WINDMULLER, Chairman of the Committee on Internal Trade and Improvements, reported that the Committee had received a communication from the Post Office Clerks' Association of this City, dated December 21st, 1893, in reference to a reduction in the hours of labor in the New-York Post Office, and that the Committee had also received a communication from JAMES GAYLER, Assistant Postmaster, favoring the request of the employees.

The Committee recommended that the Postmaster-General be urged to increase the number of employees, and make a reasonable reduction in the hours of labor, and also to act upon the recommendations made to the Postmaster-General by the Chamber on the 3d of March, 1892.

A. FOSTER HIGGINS, Chairman of the Committee on the Harbor and Shipping, reported back the resolution, referred to the Committee by the Chamber on the 4th ultimo, in reference to the completion of the Sandy Bay Breakwater and Harbor of Refuge, Cape Ann, Mass., and, on recommendation of the Committee, it was unanimously adopted.

Mr. HIGGINS stated that the Committee had under consideration the resignation of JOSIAH O. WARD, as Commissioner for Licensing Sailors' Hotels or Boarding Houses, and would report thereon at the next regular meeting of the Chamber.

REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES.

GUSTAV H. SCHWAB, Chairman of the Special Committee appointed at the regular meeting, held on the 7th December last, to present to the authorities at Washington the objections of the Chamber to the Hudson River Bridge Bill, reported the following preamble and resolution, and moved their adoption:

Whereas, The refusal of the President to sign the Hudson River Bridge Bill on the grounds stated in his veto message meet the cordial approval of this Chamber; and

Whereas, In protesting against the bill which sanctioned the building of piers in the river-bed, the Chamber was influenced solely by its Charter obligations to protect the interests of this City and State and the great Trans-Atlantic commerce of the Port; and

Whereas, The Chamber will welcome the construction of any

bridge or bridges without the objectionable features of the bill which failed to become a law:

Resolved, That the thanks of the Chamber are eminently due and are hereby tendered to the Hon. FRANKLIN BARTLETT, the Hon. J. DE WITT WARNER, the Hon. Amos J. CUMMINGS and the Hon. WILLIAM RYAN, of the New-York Delegation, for the able services rendered by these gentlemen in the House of Representatives and before the Secretary of War, to preserve New-York Harbor from what is believed would be an irreparable injury to its commerce and navigation.

The preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted, and the Secretary was instructed to send a copy to the gentlemen named.

The President laid before the Chamber the following telegram he had received from the Chairman of the Committee, appointed by the State Senate, to investigate the Police Department of this City:

CHARLES STEWART SMITH,

ALBANY, N. Y., January 31, 1894.

President Chamber of Commerce, New-York:

Senate Committee to investigate Police Department of New-York City will meet at the Hotel Metropole, New-York City, on Friday afternoon, at four; would like to have you present and ready to suggest names of counsel to conduct investigation, from which Committee may make its selection. We will be ready to hear testimony Saturday, A. M., at 10 o'clock.

CLARENCE LEXOw, Chairman.

The President stated that he had, by the unanimous request of the Special Committee of the Chamber on Municipal and State Legislation, presented the name of JOSEPH H. CHOATE, and recommended his appointment as counsel to the Senate Committee.

RESOLUTIONS.

ALEXANDER E. ORR moved that JOEL B. ERHARDT be recommended as associate counsel with Mr. CHOATE, and that the selection of these gentlemen to aid the Senate Committee be approved by the Chamber.

This motion was unanimously adopted.

Mr. HIGGINS Submitted the following resolution, and moved its adoption:

Resolved, That the President of this Chamber be and is hereby authorized to certify to the ownership of certain trade marks of the LYMAN Mills, of Holyoke, Mass., and attach the seal of the Chamber thereto-such certification to be used in courts in foreign countries to protect the owners against fraud.

After a few explanatory remarks by the President, the resolution was unanimously adopted.

Mr. SLOANE offered the following resolutions, and moved their adoption:

Resolved, That the President be authorized and requested to appoint a Committee of Five, to examine the subject of Rapid Transit, and report what action, if any, on the part or the Chamber of Commerce, it is advisable to take, for the purpose of aiding in the solution of this important problem.

Resolved, further, That this meeting be adjourned until Thursday, February 15th, at half-past twelve o'clock, for the purpose of receiving and taking action on the Report of the Committee to be appointed under the provisions of the above resolution.

RICHARD T. WILSON.-Mr. President, I would like to say a few words with respect to that resolution. I heartily sympathize with the action that is proposed to be taken, and, as my name has been connected with the subject recently, I think it is but proper that I should make some explanation. In the first place, about a year ago, I submitted a suggestion—rather more than a proposition-by which I thought this question might be solved. Upon examination of the laws and the Constitution of the State of New York, it was found to be illegal to loan the credit of the city, through the issuance of its bonds. I then passed from the subject up to a recent period, watching in the meanwhile the progress, or, rather, the non-progress, that had been made in respect to the solution of this matter, and was recently solicited to again submit a proposition substantially the same as that which was submitted about a year ago; with the suggestion that it was an opportune time for having any difficulties that then existed removed, as there was at present a session of the Legislature, and a Constitutional Convention to be assembled in May next, and if the people of the City of New-York wanted rapid transit, and if the plans that were suggested for the raising of the capital were approved by the people of the City of New-York, the constitutional inhibition could and would be removed.

I was solicited to make that suggestion, and, in accordance with that solicitation, I have recently submitted it. It has been subjected to a good many criticisms, some of which are fair enough, and others, I think, fall far below the scope of and the purposes that were intended to be presented in the submission of that proposition.

In the first place, it was only intended as a mere suggestion, by which this great problem could be solved. It was not intended as being an exclusive suggestion, or anything of that kind. It was submitted for the purpose of presenting a way by which this important want of this city could be met. It was not for the purpose of obtaining the city's credit or aid for a private enterprise, as it has since been termed. I think that is entirely a mis-statement of the nature of the proposition. If this is not a public question of sufficient importance to differentiate it from other things, then it is not worthy of our attention and ought not to be encouraged. If it is a public question, and if the city's aid may assist in solving the matter, not for the private ends of anybody, but for a great public purpose, then it raises the matter out of the category of mere schemes, as it has been called, and places it before the people of the City of New-York, or, at least, it should place it before them, as a feasible plan for solving a problem of the highest importance to the public welfare of this great city. If it is not that, I am ready to drop it to-day, and propose to do so. If it is that, I want the intelligence of this Chamber to help it forward; and I must say that I believe there is no other body more capable of solving any business question intelligently, than is the New-York Chamber of Commerce.

Now, assuming that it is not a private enterprise at all, in the sense of that term as applied to ordinary corporations, but, on the contrary, that it is for the purpose of meeting a great public want of the city, that it seems impracticable to provide for otherwise, I think it proper to state that with the aid of the city, I have assurances of being able to raise the needed private capital from individuals to the extent of one-third of the cost of the road, and also to such additional extent, above the $30,000,000 limit, as may be required to build the road. If you ask me why I can raise the capital from individuals, as just stated, I answer, because of the city's aid, as above stated, it makes a plan with adequate provisions for accomplishing this great work, and it is financially reasonable and promises financial success. It also promises security to the city of New-York, and it promises what is better still, an early building of a great underground system of rapid transit, thus solving the problem that to-day is of the first importance to the city and to the future of New-York.

THE PRESIDENT. -Does it disturb the streets at all?

Mr. WILSON.-Not at all. I do not think it will disturb a single street, except where openings have to be made to excavate. Many suggestions have been made to raise little syndicates of one, two, three, four or five millions of money with which to do this work. I think I can foresee the end of all such syndicates. The end would be most unsatisfactory, in my opinion, for the reason that the work would not get far enough along to show that the enterprise was capable of earning money sufficient to commend it to the public for the public's credit, and it would break down and would

stand in the way of completing a system for an indefinite number of years-how many, nobody could tell. Therefore, I have not been inclined to go into anything with inadequate provisions. I have had estimates made, and I am satisfied that there can be built a system of rapid transit, embracing about seventeen miles of four track railway, going from the Battery, up Broadway and the Boulevard, to Fort George, and also upon the east side of town to a point to be determined upon, for about fifty millions of dollars. And I am satisfied, that with the plan that has been suggested, it will be very easy to get twenty millions of dollars from private capital. In fact, as just stated, I have assurance that I can get every dollar that is wanted. But I have not closed in any copper-fastened WILSON Syndicate, and I don't want to close it in. I want to leave it open to my fellow-citizens, business men, whose character and judgment will be of great service in completing this great work. I say right here, once and for all, that I am ready, personally, to take just as much or just as little, or none at all, in this plan, as my fellow-citizens, who really have the success of the enterprise at heart, shall assign to me. It is not a personal matter with me. It is a public matter, the solution of which I have seen no practicable way of bringing about up to this time, except the way I have suggested.

I

Now, as to the plan; it can be built for about fifty millions of dollars, possibly a little less, or it may cost something more. think if it were built it would be practicable to transport a greater number of people in a given period of time, faster, with greater safety, and in greater comfort than any other system that has ever been suggested upon the face of the globe. That is saying a good deal. You may ask why. The reason is very patent. In the first place, electricity has come into existence as a power within the last few years. It cannot only pull, but it can light. The gases and the disagreeable features of tunnels are by its use more or less eliminated. Not only will it do that, but it can be used to ventilate. It is practicable with electrical ventilation to have a pleasant and agreeable air throughout the entire tunnel. Another factor that has come in recently is cheap steel. It is practicable now to build a structure from one end of this island to the other out of steel. Of course, you have to have the excavation in which to place this steel The steel is welded together, so to speak, by electricity in the tunnel at the time, and you can also weld the rails together, thereby making one continuous rail. It is proposed to grind the surface of these rails to a smooth surface, and it is not proposed to have spikes in them, but to rivet them down to the steel, so that the whole structure, both the top and the bottom and the walls, except at stations, will be one continuous welded and riveted mass, thereby avoiding any possibility of shaking or careening or disalignment of the track; and, with the automatic devices applicable to the working out of the block system with electricity, it can be so arranged that I think we can run trains from one end of this island to the other, making ten stops, in twenty minutes.